Oconee commission is wasting political capital

Posted: Sunday, June 07, 2009

By Johnathan McGinty

If you wonder what the future may hold for Oconee County, the negotiations over the county's budget the past two weeks might serve as your own personal DeLorean with which, minus Michael J. Fox, you get to rocket forward in time and catch a glimpse of what's to come.

And, McFly, it looks a lot like your usual bureaucracy.

The Oconee County Commission, long frustrated with what it feels is a lack of communication from Chairman Melvin Davis, has begun to take strong steps to assume control in the chain of command. The initial proposals have the county's department heads reporting directly to the commission rather than solely to Davis.

The goal, a noble one, is to streamline communication, but the unintended consequence might be an overly micromanaged government.

That brings us to the ongoing budget battle.

Davis proposed a $34 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year that starts July 1, trimming more than $6 million from last year's budget. Making the initial proposal even more impressive was that it was developed without any increases in property taxes, no layoffs of existing personnel and by dipping into only one-tenth of the available cash in the reserve fund.

It wasn't easy to reach, but as Davis said, it is "a pretty dad-gum lean budget."

But rather than begin working on the proposal proactively, commissioners reflexively panned the budget. They told Davis, without any clear explanation, they wished to see less money withdrawn from the reserve fund and more services cut.

Or, in the words of Commissioner Jim Luke, "Let's see what (more cuts) ... bring us from a pain level."

Well, it's not just more cuts that Luke and the other commissioners had in mind, but also more fees. After practically rewriting the budget on the back of napkins, commissioners opted to have parents pay more for after-school programs and property owners pay more for sanitation.

The absurdity of trying to pinch pennies, thus raising fees on the public and slashing spending in small, illogical chunks, is even more stunning when you consider Oconee County has $10 million in its reserve fund.

So while commissioners wrestle with a financial gap they created, the answer is sitting in the community's bank account in the form of already-paid taxes and fees saved for a rainy day just like this. However, rather than put that already-earned money to good use, the commission seems bent on cutting things such as Keep Oconee Beautiful and making its citizens dig a littler deeper in their pockets.

Because the problem with Davis' budget, it seems, is that it came from Davis.

The Oconee County Commission, as has been well-documented, doesn't exactly see eye to eye with Davis on a host of issues. And while there is justifiable criticism to be made regarding the difficulties Davis has in open communication with not only the commission, but also the community, it appears this frustration is bleeding over into day-to-day county business.

Throughout the process, commissioners have gone to great lengths to commend Davis for his job, and stress that any reconfiguration of the local government is being done to ensure openness and efficiency. However, as the budget battle has unfolded, it seems likely that nothing less than a general dissatisfaction with Davis is driving this movement.

Again, the criticisms of Davis' communication and openness are definitely not without merit, but they're also unfairly coloring other issues such as the ongoing budget negotiations. As a result, citizens are looking at a hastily thrown-together budget that cuts some popular services while making others cost more.

Or, more succinctly, their disagreement is becoming our problem.

If the community wishes to have its elected officials quibbling over every minute action taken by the various members of staff - something that looks increasingly likely if the reconfiguration is approved in its current form - then this flap might be an example of the type of governance coming our way.

And while the solution to this manufactured problem is quite simple - use the existing reserve funds to avoid more painful cuts and fee hikes - the long-term prospects will be more difficult to sort through.

While it may be somewhat politically popular now to challenge Davis' authority, if it results in poorly designed policies that directly affect citizens - as the commission's revised budget would do - then such capital may not be around too long for the commission to spend.

• Johnathan McGinty, a former reporter and editor at the Athens Banner-Herald, lives in Oconee County and runs Beyond The Trestle, a blog that covers local and state politics.